


the pretender

by QuietlikeaMouse



Series: Run Boy Run [3]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Dissociation, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 04:47:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10482402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietlikeaMouse/pseuds/QuietlikeaMouse
Summary: Sing as their bones go marching in, again / the need you buried deep / the secrets that you keep are ever ready / are you ready?





	

It was strange for Gavin. When he was younger he was so sure of what he liked. Stars glittering in the sky, his best friend Dan, playing pretend, and being independent. Gavin knew who he was and he loved it. No one was going to boss him around and nothing could bring him down. At least, that was until everything went to shit. It started with Dan and him arguing. Gavin wanted to follow his father’s footsteps and become a pickpocket and a hacker. Dan wanted to make an honest living like his mother and join the military for a little while. They argued and argued until one day Gavin found out that Dan had enlisted and was leaving in a week. It was the worst week of Gavin’s life. He hated Dan, but he didn’t want his friend to leave. He feared Dan would die there and so… Gavin did something bad.

Gavin had been training and learning to hack things and honestly, he was pretty good at it back then. So, he’d hacked into the military, the biggest thing he’d ever done before, and made Dan disappear from their system. Dan wasn’t leaving anymore and was barred from joining the military. Gavin thought he was saving Dan’s life, but he was ruining it. It was the first time Gavin had ever been called selfish… It wasn’t going to be the last.

The thing was, that Gavin had left footprints in his hacking. The military knew he’d hacked their system and they were coming after him, coming after him in a way he wouldn’t survive. So, Gavin ran. He didn’t even tell Dan. To Dan, Gavin was dead and Gavin, well, Gavin wanted it that way.

In America, Gavin had to become a different person. He didn’t have a computer to hack from and he wasn’t a good enough pickpocket to survive on that alone so he started pretending he was someone else. To the city, Gavin became known as the Golden Boy. He was a smooth talker who could get anything he wanted. No one would resist him because his words were silk that wrapped around a person until they were so entangled in him they had no option other than to obey. Gavin was good. Maybe too good.

In becoming the Golden Boy, Gavin lost himself. He was numb to the world and worse, he didn’t know who he was anymore. The Golden Boy was someone else. Gavin wasn’t the Golden Boy he was just some lost person stumbling his way through life. Finding the Fakes made it a little better.

Geoff Ramsey saved Gavin from himself. For some reason this rising criminal decided to start talking to a random kid waiting for a train he wasn’t going to get on. Geoff saved Gavin’s life by just offering him some food and a place to stay. It helped sooth the pain and emptiness losing Dan had caused. It made Gavin remember who he was. That was the start of an uneasy friendship. After all, the first night Gavin stayed with Geoff he robbed the man blind. For some reason, Gavin came back, though. Gavin felt some connection to the other. Or maybe it was just because Geoff was the first person in years to make Gavin feel alive.

With Geoff came Jack, the mother Gavin had never known. Later came along Michael, more of a family than Gavin had ever had. Eventually Ryan who made Gavin uncomfortable until he just became a weird uncle in their strange little family. Gavin’s pain lessened, but he still felt a little empty. Gavin still felt like he didn’t know who he was. Being in the happy little family still felt like playing a role. He still felt a little numb.

Matt Bragg was something of an enigma in Gavin’s life. At first, Gavin had just been trying to get something from the other, a ride, some money, anything that the other had really. Gavin just wanted a cheap thrill of tricking some rando in the fucking city. Gavin thought he was charming the snot out of the man in front of him, but apparently not.

“Dude, why are you acting so strange?” Matt said, sounding far too casual for Gavin’s liking.

Stunned for a second, Gavin responded, “Wot?” before composing himself and responding much more eloquently, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, love.”

It felt weird to be studied by Matt. Gavin didn’t know him, yet, but it felt like the other was staring straight through him and seeing something entirely different from everyone else. It was like Matt didn’t give a fuck who Gavin was as the Golden Boy or really who the fuck anyone was. Matt seemed to treat everyone the same no matter who they were or seemed to be. It was strange for Gavin. He was so used to people treating him like he was special and fragile, but this person he’d just met was acting like he was a normal person. It was almost insulting.

“You’re acting like… I don’t know. A Barbie doll or something. Not like a real person,” Matt shot back with a shrug as if they were discussing the weather.

Huffing Gavin snapped, “I don’t know what you’re bloody well talking about.”

A laugh spilled from Matt’s lips and Gavin felt something in his chest flutter. “Now you’re acting like a real person instead of some machine that changes based on what the user wants.”

There was a moment of silence before Matt spoke again, “Want to go get some coffee?”

That was the first time Gavin felt like a real person since his friendship with Dan had ended. If asked later, Gavin would have said that was their first date and well, the first time Gavin realized what love was. If given the choice of any person in the world, Gavin knew, he’d chose Matt a thousand times over.

**Author's Note:**

> This was interesting to write. I hope you guys liked it! This is connected to my other works in this series and I may end up writing more on Gavin and Matt's relationship in this universe.


End file.
